Will Teach Aerobics For Room

Some will work for food; many others will work for a room of their own.

As a sign of the times, people are flocking to Craigslist to look for free rooms in exchange for “professional services,” including ice skating lessons, personal training sessions, aerobics classes, interior design work, office work, cooking and marketing help.

One room seeker, “Vanessa,” says she “had some entrepreneurial downfalls and needs to financially get caught up.” Another “novelist” in Santa Cruz offers his “agricultural work” and “domestic work” in exchange for a free room. And sadly, one 60-something mom from Minneapolis, on a fixed income, says she needs a room in Berkeley so she can be near her daughters.

You’d think that asking for a free room would require a certain amount of desperation, but these room seekers seem, if anything, a bit choosy. The mom from Minneapolis, for example, says she can’t live with pets and she’s “willing to consider” baby-sitting or senior care in exchange for a room, assuming she has time to swim, attend computer classes and see her family. (Do free rooms grow on trees?)

Another room seeker — a part-time “writer and creative designer” says her first choice would be to live in “separate quarters” or a “large home with a private wing.” Really?

And “Vanessa,” the make-up artist/stylist/marketer/interior designer we mentioned up above, says she would prefer “a large home with pool or community pool.” Clearly, we’re not in another Great Depression.